In some organizations, people spend more than a full-time job getting their required tasks completed and fighting the fires created in their work. The only changes made are reactions to problems or changes mandated outside the organization. To break out of this trap, management must learn how to start investing time in developing, testing, and implementing changes that will lead to improvements. Some methods to focus resources on improvement include substituting improvement for non-value-added work, use of full-time "SWAT" teams assigned to a process or outcome, assignment of positions in research and development to process improvement, use of industrial engineers in service industries, and the use of relief operators or temporary workers.
